New Year’s Day and Piatra Craiului
After sleeping in a bit on New Year’s morning, Maddy picked me up and we went to on of her favorite nearby National Parks Piatra Craiului. This includes the Piatra Craiului (Prince’s Stone) Mountains, part of the southern Carpathian range. The park features the longest and highest limestone ridge in the country, which is regarded as one of the most beautiful sites in the Carpathians. It’s also listed among the seven natural wonders of Romania. The clouds were kind of socked in so we couldn’t clearly see all the peaks, but it was a beautiful area. We did a little walking about and I took some photos. On the way back, we again stopped into D.O.R. for another great meal.
Hunedora, Corvin Castle, Sibiu
After a day of appliance shopping, on a very cold morning we got up early and headed westward across Transylvania to the town of Hunedora, the location of Corvin Castle. This was a long drive so we left before dawn. Due to the cold, we had some beautiful scenery with frozen ice covered trees. Most of the way there, there was heavy fog along the road. It really didn’t clear much until we got right to the castle.
Corvin Castle is one of the largest castles in Europe. It is a Gothic-Renaissance castle and it is considered one of the Seven Wonders of Romania. One of the best sites from my last visit was Bran Castle, and although I didn’t manage to tour it this time, this was a great castle to visit. There are also some threads of connection of this castle to Vlad the Impaler, but that wasn’t really brought out at the castle. The origin of Bran Castle dates to the 13th and 14th century, and Corvin Castle began to be laid out in the 15th century. Apparently it has been destroyed by fire five times and subsequently rebuilt. Unlike Bran Castle it is uninhabited, but it is an impressive and imposing structure. We walked all over it, and I took lots of pictures. It looms over the surrounding town. It was a very interesting castle to visit. In some of the lower areas they had some historical/archeological displays. After we left the castle proper, right adjacent to it was a museum of torture which had some fairly explicit displays setup. Bran also had a torture tour, but it mostly focused on the medieval torture devices, whereas this one showed how they were used on people.
On the way back we stopped in the picturesque town of Sibiu, which is similar in many ways to Brașov. They had a beautiful historic city center, and the main reason we went was so I could see a Christmas market. The market was lively, but not that much different from the one I saw in Bucharest. After walking around a bit we had dinner in a German restaurant where I got to try some genuine schnitzel. After a long day of fun touring, we headed back to Brașov in the dark. This was the last big tour event of my trip.
Transylvanian Photoshoot
Maddy was brave enough to agree to try a photoshoot with me as the Airbnb where I was staying was quite photogenic. This was a challenge for me as all of the shoots I’ve done in the last few years have involved experienced models who didn’t require much direction, and they were confident in their posing. So I had to work harder in directing my subject as well as overcoming her natural level of discomfort in front of the camera. It took a while to get warmed up, but over two sessions things got more comfortable, and we managed to get some good shots that we both liked.
